Today we’d like to introduce you to Bomani Mintz.
Hi Bomani, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’ve always had a strong passion for food, combined with infatuation with technology from a young age. I remember towards the end of college, in 2012, I opened my own “Foodstagram” account, dedicated to all things food. Back then, they really weren’t that common as they are now! So much so that people would make fun of me for taking photos of my food.
Right around this time, I worked in Houston for a CPG food broker. Outside of my day job, I reached out to local restaurants to shoot photos and help them better tell their story through food. I’d also work at catering gigs or volunteer at food festivals; anything that was exciting involving food, I was there.
In January of 2015, I moved to San Francisco to work for my dream company LinkedIn to pursue my goals of working in technology. Working at a social media powerhouse like LinkedIn allowed me to get one step closer to learning how to build my own food tech company. I started off my career at LinkedIn working in Sales Development where I learned how to problem-solve, qualify revenue opportunities, and to connect with senior-level executives. I then strategically transitioned within LinkedIn to Customer Success so that I could work cross-functionally and work with product, engineering, sales, operations, support, executives and end-users of our product.
I always had Crave It in the back of my mind. While I was at LinkedIn, I bootstrapped the first and second version of our alpha products. One of the hardest challenges I faced early on was getting the right team in place given the limited capital we had, the limitations our engineering team had outside of their 9-to-5, and not financially being able to go full/time. What kept me going during these times was my own validation, the markets validation, and me knowing that there’s something bigger in food tech that can connect us all on a deeper level. Regardless of the multiple hurdles I faced, I continued to persevere and in July 2019, I was able to take the leap of faith, bet on myself, and go full-time to pursue Crave It.
Going full-time with Crave It has been the best decision I’ve ever made. It has allowed me to fully focus my time on building the right brand, creating company culture, hiring the right team, raising capital, and building a product that’s going to connect the world through food and make the world a better place.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
During my time at LinkedIn, I worked tirelessly to expand my network and absorbed as much as I could during my day job. I then spent nights and weekends using the tools I learned to build my own food tech company.
With patience and perseverance, I have arrived at where I’m at today. The road that I have traveled has been far from easy. It’s been filled with countless sleepless nights, low bank account balances, brutally demeaning conversations, relationship tests, tons of missed celebrations, and the ever-present fear of failure. But here I stand.
As you know, we’re big fans of Crave It. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Crave It is a social app for food. It’s a purpose-driven app for all things food. It’s the place where food lovers, chefs, restaurants, food influencers, tastemakers and recipe creators come together to celebrate and build communities around food.
Our team is proud to have created a brand that caters to the needs of all key players in the food space. We all work together, yet there isn’t a home to have all these pieces unite in a single community.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
How I Built This – Guy Raz: Podcast
Insight Timer – Meditation
Peloton – Fitness
Making time for friends and family
Making time to help others be successful
Contact Info:
- Email: contact.us@craveit.co
- Website: craveit.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craveit.co/ and https://www.instagram.com/bo_life90/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/CraveIt_ and https://twitter.com/BomaniMintz
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCNaRm4b8jXROUXTPHlmAPw
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@craveit.co
Image Credits:
For both photos with Bomani with Crave It sticker on black shirt – Credits: @LuckeeeNgin
